Anatomy of the Reflect Viewer

1. Overview

The Unity Reflect Viewer project available from Github comes with the Reflect Viewer UI and functionality already set up for you. This project contains all of the Reflect Viewer’s UI elements and allows you to run the Viewer in the Unity Editor with the same functionality as the standalone viewer.

2. Introduction

The Reflect Viewer project is the “raw” version of the standalone viewer and is the project on which the standalone viewer is built. By understanding the different parts of this Unity project, you can start customizing it and building your own version. You could build, for example:

• A viewer that displays a customer’s branding

• A viewer with a different layout and functionality

• UI elements with a different visual style

For this tutorial, you will need:

• The Reflect Viewer project downloaded from Github

• A Pro license for the Unity Editor

3. The Reflect project

After downloading and opening the Unity Reflect project from GitHub you will find the Reflect scene in your project Assets > Scenes folder (Figure 01).

Figure 01: The Unity Reflect Scene

When you open this scene, you will find the Reflect viewer already set up in the scene (Figure 02).

Figure 02: The Unity Reflect Scene

Now we’ll explore the different parts of the Reflect Viewer.

The first thing to understand is that you are currently looking at the Reflect Viewer as a Unity project. Should you decide to build it now, you will have the exact same viewer application that clients use to look at the CAD and BIM models you export from Revit or other Reflect-compatible applications.

Play the Scene to see the viewer in action. Note that the account the Viewer uses is the same account you used to sign in to the Unity Editor. In order to see your projects, make sure they are assigned to the same account you use in the Unity Editor (Figure 03).

Figure 03: The Projects window with a logged-in account

Stop the program to return to the Editor. The Reflect Viewer canvas will now be visible in the Scene (Figure 04).

Figure 04: The canvas in the Scene

Looking at the Reflect GameObject in the Scene explorer, you’ll notice there are child GameObjects in the Hierarchy (Figure 05).

Figure 05: Child elements of the Reflect GameObject

4. Child elements of the Reflect GameObject

MARS Session

This GameObject contains the scripts for integrating Unity Mars into your project. Note that you need a MARS subscription for this to be used in your project.

Reflect

Contains the scripts and settings for the Reflect rendering pipeline.

Post-Processing Volume

Empty GameObject that contains the post processing script and setting for the scene.

Managers

This GameObject contains the scripts that manage the Reflect Viewer at runtime (Figure 06).

Figure 06: Scripts assigned to the Managers object

Events system

This is the container for all the scripts that handle events in the Reflect Viewer.

Root

The Root GameObject is a bit different from the rest. This object does not house anything in edit mode. At runtime, when a project is downloaded, this object is used to contain all the geometry, Materials and metadata of the model (Figure 07).

Figure 07: The Root GameObject

BoundingBoxRoot

The BoundingBoxRoot is used by the application to determine where the SpatialFilterNode will place the blue bounding boxes

PlacementRoot

PlacementRoot is required in AR when you are placing your model. It serves as a way to rotate around the center of the model

Directional Light

The directional light acts as the sun in the scene and is linked to/manipulated by the Sun Study tool in the application.

UI root

The UI Root GameObject contains all of the canvases, buttons and other elements that make up the user interface of the application.

5. Next Steps

You should now have a firm grasp of the Unity Reflect Viewer GameObject and how the different components fit together. Use that knowledge to explore how to customize the viewer user interface to your specific needs using the basic Unity canvas tools and UI workflows.